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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Why DC’s Convergence Does Not Solve The Crisis At DC Comics

Now that Convergence is over we’re told everything has
changed. Unfortunately everything is still the same at DC Comics.

According to Dan Didio, after the Convergence, the Crisis of
Infinite Earths is now invalidated. And every universe including the Pre-Crisis
DC now exists. And now all the universes including the New 52 are valid.

Let me get this straight. Didio spent 15 years of destroying
the characters in the main DC Universe to give us a bigger more confusing,
hard-to-follow DC Universe than the one we had in 1984.

Why does this man still have a job?

According to Didio, things will be better now that all the DC
Universes are valid. Writers and artists can now tell any story they please
about any character they please in whatever universe they please.

Er…Weren’t creators doing that before Didio was hired? In classic
stories like Gotham By Gaslinght, Kingdom Come, Thrillkill, JLA: The Nail JLA:
Act of God and JLA: Year One?

So according to Didio we needed to spend the last 15 years
destroying the legends of iconic characters in the main DC Universe to get the
DC Multiverse back to a point where it was in 1984? The same year DC Comics was
in one of the worst sales slumps in its history?

Again, why does this man still have a job?

Someone needs to tell Dan Didio DC Comics in 1984-1985 before
the Crisis was a complete mess. Outside of newer titles like Fury of Firestorm,
Blue Devil, All-Star Squadron and New Teen Titans not much of anything DC was
selling on the newsstands. Staple titles like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman,
Green Lantern Justice League and The Flash were struggling at the newsstand.

And all these titles were struggling with TV shows like Super
Powers on the air on Saturday morning and toy lines like Kenner’s classic Super
Powers selling on store shelves throughout the country.

The complaint from editorial back then was that DC Comics
were difficult for most to get into with all the different earths. But the
truth was in the mid 1980s, the stories in most DC Comics were absolute SHIT
back then. Barry Allen on trial, Hal Jordan acting like he needed a Midol for PMS
while Guy Gardner and John Stewart struggled to hold up the Green Lantern
franchise, Oliver Queen the Shaolin Monk, Superman reporting the TV news on
WGBS, Wonder Woman’s comic being absolute Hot Garbage (just read any issue from
about 280-300 or so), Detroit Rock JLA and Batman training Jason Todd to be Robin
weren’t actually compelling storytelling for most readers who grew up in that
era.

Outside of New Teen Titans and their AWESOME build-up to the
Judas Contract, Firestorm being F*king AWESOME during Gerry Conway’s run and
Blue Devil giving us a unique perspective on being a Hollywood hero, nothing much
was going on to light the world on fire at DC for readers like myself at the
time.

Fast forward 30 years. We have Superman with a T-Shirt and a
motorbike. Savage Wonder Woman with spiked bracelets and a full-body costume, Jim
Gordon playing Batman in armor, Green Lantern in a hoodie. More Hot Garbage
that isn’t compelling storytelling for a diehard fan or a casual reader.

After Convergence The Crisis of Infinite Earths is undone. But
the Crisis still continues in DC’s editorial department. Under the same mismanagement
the DC Universe is still an impossible, hard to access mess for the average joe
and even the diehard comic fan.

Here’s a critical thinking question for Dan Didio: So how is
going back to a model for storytelling that FAILED over thirty years ago going
to succeed right now? And how are things going to be different if you continue
to do the same things that haven’t work ever since you got on the job in 2002?

Only in the comic book world does circular logic make sense.
For the rest of us circular logic only leads to a vicious cycle where the same
things happen again and again.

Now I myself have advocated for an open continuity. And I
know the model could work in DC if executed it properly. People would be eager
to read self-contained JSA stories set in the Golden Age or Batman stories set
in the Neal Adams Era or the Bruce Timm style, or read a Catwoman story in the
Darwyn Cooke style. These kinds of self-contained graphic novels would bring
new readers in because they’d have their own entry points with their own
beginning, middles, and ends. Creators could tell their own stories without
feeling tied to a larger universe or feeling forced to deal with the baggage of
continuity or editorial mandates.

From a business standpoint these kinds of graphic novels
would be easier to sell at retailers because trade paperbacks are easier to
find in places like Barnes & Noble, Target and Amazon and other retailers
like Family Dollar at a discounted price. And they’d have a much longer shelf
life than a 32-page comic.

However, Didio’s plan is destined to fail because he continues
to execute the business model wrong and the story model wrong. The Open
Continuity model doesn’t really work in 32-page comics. Having multiple stories
in multiple universes only is going to lead to even more confusion at the comic
store.

On top of it, Didio exacerbates the problem by continuing to
push The New 52 Universe to the forefront. Instead of 52 titles set in Didio’s
new universe we now have about 26 or so. The rest will be set in other
universes. Again, causing confusion at the comic shop.

I doubt many of these new titles make it past the twelfth
issue. It’s hard enough to sell a solo title, especially if it’s in an
alternate universe. Without it being connected to the main universe there’s no
real reason for the reader to care about what’s going on.

Moreover, It’s even harder to sell a new solo title without
cross-marketing with older titles. Part of selling comics in a universe model
is cross-selling. What compels a reader to buy a title in a series is seeing
that interaction between characters in a shared universe. When a reader sees a
character appear in one book, they may be compelled to try their solo book. And
if two titles crossover readers may go and try to buy the books in their solo
series. If they really like what they read, they may become regular readers of
that title and even go back for the back issues.

Since 2002, DC Comics under the continuing leadership of Dan
Didio seems to be going through a vicious cycle where they continue to do the
exact same things and expecting a different result. The rest of the world calls
this insanity, but insanity seems to be the norm at DC Comics.

Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Flashpoint
New 52 Convergence the same cycle continues to go around at DC. Big event
announced, short surge in sales, followed by a precipitous drop-off and slump
in comic book sales.

However the only constant in spite of all the changes is Dan
Didio and the gang of four (Lee, Harras, and Nelson). And every decision they
make seems to end in the same result.

And with each passing turn of the vicious cycle more and more
people become more and more alienated and disconnected from the DC Comics
brand. These days more and more people are just not buying DC Comics. Even
worse, more and more people NOT CARING about the DC Comics brand. From movies
to merchandising there is just so much ill will on message boards about
everything DC related. And that’s souring many on DC Comics characters
long-term.

There needs to be a Convergence at Warner Brothers. One that
ends the Crisis in DC Comics editorial department. Warner Brothers CEO needs to
FIRE the convergence of incompetent managers that have mismanaged the DC Comics
brand for the last 15 years. Once the Post Didio era ends, the rebuilding of
the DC Comics brand can finally start in earnest.

3 comments:

DC had their worse dollar share EVER(24.18%) in January 2015. And then in March 2015 they managed to beat even that with a new low(23.01%). But wait! Wasn't the New52 all about boosting DC's sales? Isn't the New52 the outstanding success DC and sites like Newsarama try to convince us it is for years now?Obviously the reboot was a big, fat FLOP and numbers do not lie(although DC and their business partners obviously do!). In the long run it cost the company their long-time fans while not gaining new ones and if not for the endless string of variant cover(something they hardly ever did before the New52) and the new, higher prices DC would be sinking deeper than the Titanic right now! Well, it is almost certain that too will happen unless the admit their mistakes and undo the New52.

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Hi, I'm Shawn James and I'm a man with a lot on my mind. This blog is a place where I'll write essays, promote my self-published, books and display my art.
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